When the Director of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Fenelon B. Rice, was helping prepare students to sing at the high school graduation exercises, he singled out Terrell for further training, and invited her to join the choir at First Church and the Musical Union.  Membership in Musical Union, a choral group which has been continuously active since its founding in Oberlin in 1837, has always included members of the town, as well as College and Conservatory communities.  Terrell sang in one or both choral groups for the better part of seven years in Oberlin. 

To be a member of the choir of First Church or Second Church as well as of the Musical Union was a liberal education in the best choral works of the old masters and of the modern composers, also.  I looked forward with the keenest pleasure to singing "The Messiah" every Christmas, and I enjoyed taking part in the wonderful oratorio, "Elijah," often rendered during Commencement week (CWWW 31).

This program is from the Semi-Centennial Concert during Commencement exercises at First Church in 1883, when Terrell was a junior; she sang with the altos in the performance of Elijah.